The Mongolian Empire was very vast and divided into four Khanates, ruled separately by an individual Khan, and also overruled by the Great Khan. The Ilhhanatre had ruled Persia as well as Middle East, the Kipchak Khanate had ruled Rushia, Great Khanate had controlled China and Mongolia, and Chagatai Khanate has ruled Western Asia. In the year 1260, Genghis Khan’s grandson, named Kublai Khan became the Great Khan. After four years, he moved his capital to Beijing from Mongolia in the Northern China for the purpose of ruling China. However, in the year 1271, Kublai Khan adopted the name of Chinese dynasty, the Yuan. Further, Kublai Khan decided to rule entire China by becoming emperor of the country and started a new dynasty. The Mongols, however, succeeded in conquering entire Southern China within a shorter period of time.
In the beginning, the Mongols had ruled China as the bandits, and sucked out the maximum wealth. But, Kublai Khan preferred to slowly adopt the political theories and political structures. Particularly, Kublai Khan had built a powerful central government for strengthening his authority and power as a foreign ruler in China. The Emperor, however, became a complete, absolute, and powerful ruler. Further, Kublai Khan completed the process, and made Emperorship perfectly autocratic.
Kublai Khan, however, established the capital in Beijing, and also built a splendid palace complex purely for himself, called the Forbidden City. Further, an architectural triumph and victory, the Forbidden City comprised of the elements of the Mongolian, Chinese, Western Asian, and Arabic architectural styles. Additionally, it also contained a wider area of the Mongolian nomadic tents, and the playing field for the horsemanship of Mongolia. Kublai Khan’s Forbidden City is a protected sanctuary of the Mongolian culture in several ways. This superiority from the Chinese, which is exemplified by the Forbidden City was, however, carried over in approximately every other aspect of the Mongolian rule. Though they successfully adopted some elements of the Chinese culture, yet the Mongols rejected to learn Chinese. The government was run by the Chinese officials who were selected under the civil service examination. The communication between the lower and upper reaches of the government was only possible through the translators.
The palace that was built for Kublai Khan was more wonderful than Jin palace. Marco Polo had also given an enthusiastic explanation of the palace, and called it as an impressive palace. However, Kublai Khan was a believer of the apartheid, and ensured that mixing with the leaders of the native Chinese population was not allowed. He, however, restricted the lower organizational and administrative posts for Chinese and propagated the caste system that the Mongols and the foreign assistants ranked higher than the northern Chinese. Further, he gave lowest rank to the southern Chinese. This policy had created disagreement and most of them considered that they are no more than the slaves to Mongols.
The uprising emerged, and in the year 1278 an attempt was made by the armed force in order to overthrow the regime. Then in the year 1283, there were about 200 armed rising, and in the year 1289, above 400 uprisings were declared officially in the lower Zhagjiang River Valley. The successors of Khan, however, continued to sustain their separation from the local population, and they settled down for the luxury life. There was no successor of Kublai Khan that had the stature similar to the Kublai Khan, and the royal power declined ultimately. Further, there was no predetermined procedure for the succession, and this paved the way to the struggle and opposition among the royal prince, specifically, from 1321 and onwards.
Further, the pretenders that were backed by the Mongol nobles struggled for the throne. Many emperors were, however put on throne when they were young, but they proved above the figurehead. The Mongols gradually became deprived of the marital skills, and the unavoidably the rebellion became frequent because the anger and the resentment against the attitude of Mongol increased. The last emperor, i.e., the Shun Di Emperor, however, made many attempt in order to allow the Chinese civilization to make progress at the court.
But, it was too late now. Moreover, in the mid 14th century, the revolts were led by a man, who later on became the first Ming emperor and ultimately defeated the Yuan dynasty. This dynasty has survived for a shorter period, i.e., just for about 100 years. The first Ming emperor was irrationally scared of the Yuan Palace situated at Peking. In the year 1368, he ordered for destroying the palace, and hence the Forbidden City in Peking vanished. The son of emperor, who was Yen’s prince, became Yong Le emperor and he ignored the irrationality and the superstition. He created palace for himself on the site that was more impressive as compared to those built before. But, with the passage of the time, it became the centre for corruption, evil, and intrigue. It is, however, also a fact that the buildings are still present, and fortunately they are cleansed significantly by the time of the evil expressive and emotional pollution.
Kublai Khan has moved the capital to the Forbidden City also because of the fact that the idea of beauty in China is different as compared to the idea of beauty in the West. This does not mean that there is no beauty in the west, the palaces, the halls, and particularly the corner towers, are undeniably magnificent. But, as a matter of fact no simple example of the statue of human form can be found, nor of male, neither of the female. Further, in the Forbidden City a huge variety of the creatures could be found, such as tortoises with weird dragon like heads. They looked like fierce beasts of four legs. Some of them are also claimed that they ate human beings. Further, dragons of all types could be found, and they did not look like those dragons that were found in the mediaeval Europe. There were two lines at the gates, and these lions looked like the dogs, and they wore what resemble the collar, and some also had a lead.
Further, there were also strange animals on the roof space, and the imperial garden consisted of the strange objects such as weird stone pieces, which looked somewhat like the contemporary abstract sculpture, and all were erected on the convoluted bases. Further, there were bronze sculptures, carvings, and paintings, which logically looked conventional, e.g., deer, pheasants, cranes, bats, and also there were familiar objects such as the sundials, boxes, and bowls. However, the reality is that the formidable city is full of the designs and artifacts, and nothing has been placed simply because of its beauty or by chance. Everything that is put there and displayed there is for a purpose. Everything, however, has an interesting as well as curious story behind it.
Furthermore, the Beijing Forbidden City, which is located at the middle of Chinese capital, has represented the culmination of the imperial China. However, it became the major political centre of China. Further, the third Ming ruler has built it as an indication or the symbol of the glory, power, and the divine mandate. Additionally, the majestic Forbidden City turned into the epicenter that was ruled by 24 Qing and Ming emperors with the grandeur, regal, and royal authority. The uniqueness of the imperial support, royal trove, historical legacy, and the pompous design is sufficient enough in order to attract the foreign visitors to the country.
The imperial palace is however called Beijing Forbidden City because of its exclusive status and character as elitist royal household. Further, the emperors who had ruled China with the mandate of the heaven, and got the divine status disallowed the entry of the common man to the walled city. This had led the citizens to call the royal palace as the Forbidden City, also Zijin Cheng.
Moreover, during Yong Lee’s period, the third Ming ruler had envisaged the palace complex as a large building having a purpose of receiving the foreign delegations, and religious building in order to accommodate the three main religions of China that were common at that time namely, Lamaism, Buddhism, and Taoism. However, the spiritual aspects regarding the palace fell to the tutor of Yong Lee, named Monk. Purple was the royal color at that time so the building was known as Zijing Chen, which means Purple Forbidden City. The local folklore had indicated that no one was permitted to go inside and leave the imperial palace without the royal permission.
Kublai Khan had moved the capital from Mongolia to Beijing, which is a Chinese city for proclaiming The Yuan Empire. He had proclaimed the Yuan Empire in 1271-1368. Kublai Khan had also conquered remaining China that included the Song state. He had conquered the Song State in the year 1279. Kublai Khan, however, called himself The Great Khan of the Mongols. Kublai Khan and the Mongols adopted the leadership in Chinese way. Further, they also adopted Buddhism and made Mandarin Chinese as their official language. However, Kublai Khan can be regarded as the China’s Re-unifier, as he had reunified the country as a single state.
Kubai Khan, however, reigned till the year 1294, and with his efforts he had made Yuan powerful and rich. He succeeded in several military campaigns, but remained unsuccessful in conquering Japan, which he tried to conquer in 1274-1281, and Java, for which he thought in the year 1293. Further, he forced most of the neighbors of China for paying the tribute, and the Yuan empire had restricted the attacks from the other states of Mongol that are situated in the Central Asia.
Kublai Khan played a significant role in rebuilding the economy and bureaucracy of China. He had repaired the roads as well as canals. He also paid attention to the building of the new cities. An example of this fact is the resort of Shangdu, which is known as Xanadu in the West. Further, Kublai Khan had also restored the trade with the West, which can be analyzed from the fact that the Silk Road that became inactive, however, became active again for the trade, and became an important trade route. Marco Polo, who was the Venetian merchant, however, visited China that was transformed by Kublai Khan in 1270.
However, the Yuan State did not remain fortunate after Kublai Khan’s death. China suffered huge population loss, i.e., about 30-40% of the loss due to the presence of the Bubonic plague, which is also called Black Death. The Bubonic Plague, however, travelled from the West to the Middle East, and to Europe. The population loss paved the way to the economic decline. In 1340, a series of the civil war began, and in 1368, a final rebellion had overthrown the Yuan.
In a nutshell, Kublai Khan proved himself to be a Great Khan because he moved the capital of China to the Forbidden City as he wanted to conquer entire China. He had effectively conquered China and taken significant steps in order to improve the condition of the country. He played very important role in building the roads, improving the infrastructure, improving the economic conditions, promoting trade, and building bureaucracy in the country. He has adopted the leadership in the Chinese style so that he could serve the Chinese people in effectual way, and the Chinese people can also follow him easily, so that they can work in collaboration with each other for improving the conditions of the economy. During his reign, the condition of China improved to a larger extent but the condition of the country changed after its death.
Bibliography
Behnke, Alison. The Conquests of Genghis Khan.( Minneapolis: Lerner Publishing Group, Inc., 2008)
San, Tan Koon. Dynastic China: An Elementary History. (Malaysia: The Other Press, 2014)
Langlois, John D. China Under Mongol Rule. (New Jersey: Princeton University Press, 2014)
Steele, Philip. The Chinese Empire. (New York: The Rosen Publishing, 2009)
Minahan, James B. Ethnic Groups of North, East, and Central Asia. (California:ABC-CLIO, 2014)
Strand, David. An Unfinished Republic: Leading by Word and Deed in Modern China. (California: University of Califirnia Press, 2011)
Cowen, Noel. Global History: A Short Overview. (New Jersey: John Wiley and Sons, 2013)
